West Advisor

The West Advisor articles have answered boaters' questions and provided solutions to boating problems for more than 20 years. West Marine has compiled one of the Web's most comprehensive collections of technical boating information articles.

First off, I took the Ecorox out of the box in the car on the way home to test it with the windows down and wind noise. I was immediately appalled by the excruciating sound quality at anything over half volume. However, when I got home I tried it again and it sounded like a completely different speaker. So there must have been some sort of breaking in period.

On the build quality/functions: it looks and feels solid and durable. I will be using it on a PWC, so I ran it under the sink a couple times. Doesn't seem to have hurt it. The Bluetooth is foolproof, requires pushing 1 button. And the power/battery/bluetooth LED lights on the top are a nice touch to know it's working.

Back to sound quality: It does what it should for a $100 bluetooth and lithium powered device. Nothing more, nothing less. I have tried it out on all kinds of music, electronic, country, rock, hip hop, and it produces everything with confidence. I bought it for the horribly long no-wake zones here in FL. It should work for that, but not high speed cruising. Vocals are nice and crisp, the mids and bass are decent. However, heavy metal with the fast paced guitar and drums gets distorted a bit. If that's all you listen to don't buy it. But if that's all you listen to you have bigger problems.

Most impressive thing about this speaker so far is the battery. I took it out of the box after it sat there for weeks or months, who knows, and it has been on for an hour without charging it. That's a good sign in my opinion, for the power off battery life at least.

Bought this sight unseen, mostly to use on my inflatable Zodiac 380 Yacht Line. Can't wait to use it this summer, also bought the suction mount adapter for the center console. It's a perfect size, design and sounds great.